The Year of Magical Stinking: An Oral History of Tebow Time

Not even Jesus can save his passing game, and yet Tim Tebow somehow dominated the league last season, captivating Denver and much of this God-fearing nation with his messianic confidence and fourth-quarter miracle work. Michael Silver talks to the kid's coaches, teammates, and opponents and asks them: How did he do that, and will it ever happen again?

The moment when I first got religion on Tim Tebow, I was holding a blue tortilla chip about two feet from my mouth. I held it there so long that the pico de gallo eventually dislodged itself, plummeting onto the leg of my jeans. I barely noticed. The world was flatter than the TV screen a few yards in front of me, and all logic had just gone over the edge.

Sitting in the press lounge at Cowboys Stadium, where I had come to cover a mid-December game, I was witnessing the latest Tebow miracle play out with scores of my thoroughly entertained peers. Tebow, as usual, had been Ryan Leaf-
atrocious for most of the game before leading the Denver Broncos to a late touchdown, cutting the Chicago Bears' lead to 10-7. All the Bears had to do was not trip on their dicks and it was over. And then, on cue, halfback Marion Barber brain-locked and ran out of bounds, giving Tebow enough wiggle room for another insane comeback, this one featuring two fifty-plus field goals by Matt Prater. Tebow wins—again!—continuing a trend that none of the players, coaches, front-office executives, or other football insiders with whom I
constantly communicate even pretended to understand.

Never before has an NFL player's success been so simultaneously polarizing, perplexing, and captivating. From the billboard that went up in Denver last September calling for Tebow to start, to the brilliant Saturday Night Live sketch that lampooned his over-the-top Christianity, to the evangelically euphoric victory lap he took after shredding the league's top defense in a playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tebow hijacked a season and messed with football's finest minds. More than a dozen of them weigh in here, as we attempt to make sense of the ongoing conundrum known as Tebowmania.

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Trent Dilfer (ESPN analyst and former NFL QB): The Tebow story has been the most dominant story since I've been announcing. Every conversation goes to this subject. It's unavoidable.

John Fox (head coach, Denver Broncos): The minute you meet him, he has that presence. I went and met him for
dinner during the draft process down
in Gainesville. He's got a notebook,
and he's into it. He just likes talking
ball. And he picked up the tab—I've
never had that happen before.

Brady Quinn(backup QB, Denver Broncos): Early in the season, there
was a game when Kyle [Orton]
got hurt and the coaches were calling
for me to go in, but Kyle got up and finished the game out. So I was the second-string guy. Then, a few weeks later, they decided to put Tim in. I felt like the fans had a lot to do with that. Just 'cause they were chanting his
name. There was a big calling for him. No, I didn't have any billboards. That would have been nice.

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Week 7: Broncos 18, Dolphins 15

Tebow doesn't love the pocket, but he sure didn't mind it against Pittsburgh.

Tebow gets first start of the season, is breathtakingly inept for nearly fifty-five minutes. Then, down 15-0 with 5:23 remaining, he engineers comeback, throws two TD passes. Broncos win in OT.

Fox: He's a very fiery competitor. I call it competitive greatness.

Jim Schwartz (head coach, Detroit Lions): Miami did a really good job of holding
him down. And then, late in the game, they got into the "Hey, we're going to play the clock" kind of thing. Tebow was
able to get the Broncos back in the game and tie it up. In overtime, Miami went back to doing what they'd been doing, but it was too late.

D'Qwell Jackson(linebacker, Cleveland Browns): My first impression was, hell,
I couldn't believe it. When you look
at the stat line, it's like, okay, you made
a great play, but it's not gonna last.

John Elway(executive vice president, Denver Broncos): He played three
games [as a rookie], and then there's a new
system and a lockout. No off-season!
So you're talking about a new situation—essentially a rookie quarterback, and
he gets a good football team. The Lions just smothered him.

Terrell Suggs (outside linebacker, Baltimore Ravens): They say we were giving him a hard time because he's a Christian. No, that's not it! We were giving him a hard time because he was terrible.
Fox: Part of coaching is putting guys in position to succeed. After the Detroit game, we had a [coaches] meeting and said, "Listen, we didn't play very well.
How can we help them? What can we do?"

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Weeks 9 and 10: The Streak Begins

Tebow piles 118 rushing yards on top of
his two TD passes in 38-24 victory against Raiders; a week later, completes only two passes (!) against Chiefs but ekes out 17-10 win as Broncos run fifty-five times.

Kurt Warner(NFL Network analyst
and former Rams, Giants, and Cardinals QB): A huge part of the credit goes to Coach Fox and that staff to say, "Hey, this is who we've got. We think we can win with him, but we can't win the way we've been playing." From what I understand,
a huge part of that was listening to Tim and saying, "Okay, Tim, teach us. Tell
us what you're good at. Let's try to cater the offense around that." And you don't find that very often, especially in an ego-driven league like ours.

Fox: The spread option can be tough. Like most of us in the NFL—when I say "us," I'm talking about coaches, especially defensive-minded coaches—I had to deal with the option when I coached in college. And one of the nice things about pro ball is that you don't have to deal with that anymore.

Quinn: The entire game, the defensive line is chasing the quarterback around, and that wears down the pass rush. Meanwhile, the defensive backs are chasing receivers, but you only throw eight passes, so they start to feel lazy. It only takes that one play, that one big pass, for a touchdown.

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Week 11: Broncos 17, Jets 13

Jets slop around but maintain upper hand until Tebow caps late-fourth-quarter drive (that begins at his own five) with twenty-yard game-winning TD run.
Dilfer: He took advantage of a really bad blitz by, what's his name, [Eric] Smith. That blitz is designed to keep the quarterback from getting the edge.
It's called a casino blitz: You're all in. Tim felt it early and beat them around the edge.

Suggs: I couldn't believe my eyes. Somebody has to make a play, and nobody made a play.

Thomas Dimitroff (general manager, Atlanta Falcons): I think a lot of people around the league assumed, okay, when top-notch defensive-minded coaches like Rex Ryan came in there, [Tebow's win streak] was gonna come to a quick end. And it didn't. At that point, our entire league was truly back on our heels, thinking, Wow! This is for real now!

Warner: I'm more of a purist, a drop-back passer, and there were times that it was almost difficult to watch. Like, this isn't supposed to be happening, and I don't know how to filter it through my brain.